Close up on Orbital Bombardment

Orbital Bombardment is one of the most spectacular features (but not necessarily the most important one) in the upcoming Retribution expansion. EVE Online pilots will be able to turn the tides in DUST 514 battles by nuking planetary targets directly from orbit.

For example like this:

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4diq-KlXI”]

EVE Players are not concerned with the ability to shoot DUST-bunnies: they either look forward to it or simply don’t care at all. Pod pilots are however afraid of bunnies shooting back. You see, at first sight it seems that DUST players simply respawn and don’t have to grind ISK to buy ships like majority of us EVE players do. It is not entirely true. You can use cheap tech I fittings in EVE, and you can use expensive deadspace fitted faction ships. The same applies to DUST where you can use cheap and weak gear, or expensive, high quality one that you have to pay tons of ISK or AUR for.

Planetary bombardment already exists in EVE lore

The Dominix Navy Issue’s past is prominently interwoven with history, as it is known to have directly participated in the blockade and bombardment of Caldari Prime along with the Dracofeu orbital-class bomber two centuries ago. Engineered for capsule compliance, and refitted to serve more traditional combat roles, the Dominix Navy Issue today remains an extremely effective vessel and an invaluable asset in close- to mid-range battle situations.

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonus: 5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage and 10% bonus to drone hitpoints and damage per skill level.

Did you notice the fragment in bold? It has been there for as long as Dominix Navy Issue exists, but had no real meaning until DUST 514 Orbital Bombardment feature.

CCP has mentioned several times, that destroyers will be the ship of choice for orbital bombardment, and that a new set of destroyers will be introduced in the winter expansion. Although Dracofeu is a ship from two hundred years in the EVE past, it doesn’t mean the new Destroyer couldn’t bear this name. It would even make sense considering the fact, that the Dominix Navy is a rather “old” design as well.

Destroyers won’t get the bonus right away, however. According to the post I’ve linked above, it will happen sometime after the initial deployment of winter expansion.

Hands on lab

First, you need a Tactical space-to-ground ammo. The only size available is small at the moment,  which suggests the use of small craft with many turrets (Destroyers!) or turret bonuses (faction frigates). It is also worth to notice that each ammo type has different properties: lasers are very precise, high damage appliances, while projectiles are more less anti-shield Area-of-Effect weapon.

Once ammo has been loaded up, we need to go to the planet where the engagement is on. Our DUST 514 friends will provide us with the District they are fighting over. New warpable coordinates are available in orbit of Temperate  planets (a side effect of this is more “ready-to-use” safespots have been created by CCP; if you are warping away from a hostile gate, look for temperate planets).

Once in orbit, you will see the District:

 

Once connected, it’s up for our DUST bunnies friends on the surface to provide the coordinates. Once coordinates have been received, you can activate the bombardment.

It’s worth mentioning, that the satellites, which play the role of warpable beacons are great looking models. I wonder if the Art Departament could improve scanning probes in such a fashion?

Now the same on video, courtesy of @JonnyPew. This vid is a fraps of the recent mass test that took place on Buckingham on September 27th.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jjpMzMBomE”]

EVE Online: Retribution Status Post

Expansion name: Retribution
Expansion number: 18
Release date: December the 4th, 2012
Expansion theme: Ships and weapons rebalancing, Crimewatch (new PvP agression rules), new HUD, Factional Warfare and DUST 514 integration, Bounty Hunting
Last update of this post: 30.11.2012
SQLite Database dump: Buckingham build 454549
Patch notes: available here for build 453216

Retribution login screen

I know this post is a huge wall of text, but I’m trying to make it as complete and as accurate as humanly possible; instead of having to look for information about the new expansion in dozen different places, all you have to do is read through this post.

Table of contents (or TL;DR part)

  • Blueprints for new items
  • Capital ships’ Corp Hangar changes
  • Crime Watch 2.0
  • Bounty Hunting system 2.0
  • Graphical changes & ship facelifts (new Special Edition ships, Snowballs)
  • UI changes
  • Ships rebalancing
  • Frigate rebalancing
  • Destroyers (Dragoon, Corax, Algos, Talwar)
  • Cruiser rebalancing
  • Hurricane balancing
  • Turret sound changes
  • Missile changes
  • Module changes
  • Officer drone upgrades
  • E-War rebalancing
  • ORE Mining frigate (Venture)
  • NPCs AI overhaul
  • Officer Rogue Drone spawns
  • Faction Warfare – Warzone Control changes
  • Faction Warfare – NPC changes

Read more

DUST and EVE together on Singularity test server

Yesterday CCP has finished moving DUST 514 test server to the well known EVE Online public test cluster dubbed “Singularity”. Besides extensive changes to the server backend, there is many changes visible to the naked eye:

  • Capsuleers of EVE and DUST bunnies can chat in local
  • Overview settings now include more orbital structure types (it’s actually on Tranquility already)
  • New deployable type: Mobile Jump Disruptor – most likely a new type of warp bubble to stop players from using Tactical Warp Drive (the one that was supposed to arrive with Inferno)
  • Market has a new category for DUST items. They have been seeded, but are currently NOT available to buy for EVE players.
  • Customs Offices are gone and this is probably a bug. They will likely be replaced with another structure – the Space Elevator (the structure on the right)
  • Where to find Dust players on Singularity:
    You will be able to find Dust players in following systems: Kothe (Kador), Ana (Domain), Marthia (Tash Murkon), Saikanen (The Citadel), Autama (Lonetrek), Soshin (The Forge), Jolia (Sinq Laison), Adacyne (Placid), Halle (Everyshore), Egbonbet (Metropolis), Kasrasi (Derelik), and Javrendei (Heimatar)

More information in this forum post by CCP Habakuk.

 

First glimpse at the winter 2012 expansion

EDIT: Proper Status Post for Winter Expansion is already up. Go check it for all confirmed changes in the coming expansion.


As Inferno has matured a little bit, CCP started to reveal pieces of information regarding the new winter expansion. It is not enough to write my usual “status” post yet, but the information released is already quite interesting.

Please mind that the numbers below are most likely not set in stone yet and are subject to change. The data are up-to-date on 21st of August.

  • Frigate rebalancing

    Continuing the efforts started in Crucible and Inferno, CCP is re-balancing more frigates in order to make them role based (devs are calling this “tiericide”) in favor of the tier based approach. Back in 2003, when EVE was just released, putting ships in tiers made sense, but over time it caused people to fly the top-of-the-line ship, while ignoring the lower tier ships.

    Already Rebalanced:

    Combat frigates – short range brawlers: Tormentor, Punisher, Merlin, Incursus, Rifter
    Attack frigates– tech I ceptors: Executioner, Condor, Atron, Slasher

    In the winter expansion we will get:

    Disruption frigatesdev forum post here
    Weaker version of Electronic Attack Ships

    Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    Exploration frigatesdev forum post here

    They will receive an additional bonus to mini-professions, rather than just to probe scanning strength.

    Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    Logistic frigatesdev forum post here

    Along with ships rebalancing, small remote assistance modules will get a slight fitting boost as well.
    Maximum remote assistance range will be capped at 28,8km.

     Comparison tables have been removed – please go to the “status” post instead

    More Combat frigatesdev forum post here
    The Amarr have received two rebalanced combat frigates (Tormentor and Punisher) recently, so all the other races are getting a second combat frig to choose from as well.

  • ORE Mining frigate

    While Navitas and Bantam will become logistic frigates, there is a need for a small scale, low-SP mining specific ship. The ORE Mining Frigate is still nameless, but we already know how it is going to look like:

  • DUST 514 integration

    Some details have been speculated heavily by myself in this post, and by Blake from K162space here. According to this news item, CCP is currently working on moving DUST 514 to Singularity test server, which means we will be able to test the integration pretty soon. Players are however concerned by the fact, that CCP claims it takes several days of downtime to connect DUST and EVE Online. Even though the task is rather complicated, I am quite sure CCP would not allow such operation to last more than a couple of hours on Tranquility.

    EVE Online planetary bombardment - DUST 514 link
    EVE Online planetary bombardment – DUST 514 link
  • Industry

    We can only guess what the winter expansion could bring here, because there is plenty of room for improvement. The recent addition of new alchemy reactions which allow bypassing Technetium was just the tip of the iceberg. We can probably expect some form of ring mining mentioned in the Fanfest keynote, or UI fixes and multitude of small improvements (especially for repeatable tasks). Another possible improvement could affect planning and tracking of an industry operation, which currently relies heavily on third party tools and Corporation API keys.

    Unfortunately at this point there is no solid source of information regarding Industry changes and we have to wait for a proper dev-blog. On a side note, I like Poetic Stanziel’s idea regarding Ring Mining in one of a his recent posts. Add some risk of ship destruction, and this can actually end up an exciting way to gather resources.

  • Graphical changes

    New ship explosions as seen on edge-online.com and previously in one of the Fanfest keynotes (thanks for reminding about this, @wartzilla !)

  • CREST API (speculation)

    This would probably be the cherry on the cake, because EVE API in its current form, even though very useful, is still lacking many features. For example, third party applications such as Aura can let you read EVE mail, but in order to send a reply, you have to log on to the game or use EVE Gate. CREST API aims to change that, and it will allow more of a read-write access to the game, rather than current read-only approach. So far CCP has only revealed Developer Preview of CREST documentation but it is lacking any specific details regarding what the new API will and will not allow to do. The devs made no promises on release date either.

  • New modules (speculation)

    One of the famous-but-not-existing modules that were supposed to arrive in Inferno was Micro Jump Drive/Tactical Warp Drive – a module that would catapult a ship instantly about 100km forward. Since it did not make it for Inferno, we can still hope it will arrive in the winter expansion.

  • New collectible ships (lot of speculation)

    Inferno 1.2 has brought a range of Catalyst variants, which will be most likely collectible ships (think of it like Interbus Shuttle or Iteron Mark IV Amastris Edition). I highly doubt CCP would add them as ships skins in the NeX store, but as long as there is no solid evidence to the contrary, we can’t dismiss it either. There is also a possibility that these ships could be available in specific corp LP stores. This way or another, the trend seems to already have started, and we can probably expect more collectible ship variants entering the game i nthe near future, allowing for unprecedented speculation (don’t know what I’m talking about? Just do a pricecheck on Iteron Mark IV Quafe Ultramarine Edition please).

  • Graphical changes (pure speculation)

    Vagabond might get its frill back.

Business opportunity on Mining Barges and Exhumers

Inferno 1.2 is bringing some serious changes to mining in EVE Online. CCP is going to buff Mining Barges and Exhumers to be much more resilient in Inferno 1.2. The complete list of changes in  Inferno 1.2 is available for reference in my recent post about it.

Known facts

This increased resilience will come at a price. Mineral price. I have reviewed the blueprints of all Mining Barges and Exhumers on Singularity and found out that both ship classes will use considerably more materials to build. I have compared the changes in the table below:

All the data come from build 7.43.401066 on Singularity.

Current Mining Barge blueprints on Tranquility Mining Barge blueprints in Inferno 1.2

Exploit concept Business opportunity concept

At first it made sense to me: to build a ship that can withstand more damage, more material is required. But the table in the previous paragraph clearly shows, that the change can be speculated (best with Procurer). For this to work, one needs to prepare before patch is deployed. Simply build as many Procurers as possible, using a high ME blueprint, or just buy as many Procurers as possible from the market. After Inferno 1.2 is deployed, all these ships should be reprocessed (perfect refining is required to maximize profits). This will generate about 20 to 50  times more minerals than used for their production before patch. You can sell them for profit after Inferno 1.2 has been deployed.

Please close this loophole before Inferno 1.2 deployment! This is crucial. The idea of changing the amount of minerals used for manufacturing of Mining Barges might seem great from roleplaying point of view, but from design point of view is flawed and will create a very powerful exploit for players to (ab)use.

Entity saves the day

This is not an exploit. Where has my mistake been? Extra Materials of course. Some blueprints require more materials than the item itself contains – these are called Extra Materials. So by using Extra Materials rather than changing the amounts on the blueprint itself, CCP actually prevented the exploit which I was initally so vocal about.

One thing I *should* have done before posting this kind of information was VERIFY it further. This brings some other interesting idea:

Show Info should show difference between “Required Materials” and “Extra Materials“. It currently shows the sum of both.

Speculator’s market

You always speculate at your own risk. EVE Online changes a bit with every update, and it is often possible to make some ISK on these changes. There is always some risk involved: either CCP rolls back the change, or if too many players speculated, prices fall because of market saturation.

Inferno keeps on burning: Inferno 1.2 (updated 01.08.2012)

With the Alliance Tournament X now behind us, we have winners, we have runner-ups, and we have CCP preparing another installment of Inferno. Yup, the art departament is still working to improve the most important part of EVE: the spaceships.

First off: Eyecandy

This time tha Art Department has redone some of the most beautiful vessels in New Eden: Angel Cartel ships. To the contrary of what people say, they now look a bit brighter than the existing skins. The amount of detail resembles that of V3 Serpentis and Federation Navy. The only thing I dislike so far is the light shafts: in vacuum there should be no light shafts, because there is no atmosphere that could scatter the light. To art departament’s defense however: it does look cool. It is just completely unrealistic. As usual, it will be best if you have a look yourself (video on youtube)

V3 Dramiel 01 V3 Dramiel 02 V3 Daredevil 01 V3 Daredevil 02

V3 Cynabal 01 V3 Cynabal 02 V3 Machariel 01 V3 Machariel 02

Angel pirate faction has a few more non-flyable ships, and they have received the V3 facelift as well. If you are interested, this post unveils some of their mystery: Mysteries of New Eden pirate ships.

Inferno 1.2 is not just visuals; there is much more to be had

Ship balancing

So far it’s been unclear which parts of this dev-blog will make to Inferno 1.2 release, but the Inferno feature page mentions mining barges and attack frigates. On a side note, I would not call Procurer’s EHP boost to battlecruiser battleship levels “Minor”. Mining Barge rebalance will make ganking a tiny bit harder (but increased sig radius will make them easier to hit with big guns -> Tier 3 BCs FTW), while improved cargoholds on Retriever and Mackinaw will likely make them preferable to Hulks, which are going to remain top-of-the-line state-of-the-art king of the hill. Or rather king of the rocks. Or space debris. Whatever. The official dev-blog regarding Mining Barges is now available here.

    • All Barges and Exhumers get a EHP boost (Hulk and Covetor – smallest, Skiff and Procurer – largest)
    • All Barges and Exhumers have their cargohold reduced and get an Ore Hold instead
    • All Barges and Exhumers have their signature radius increased to BC levels.
    • All Barges and Exhumers need much more components to manufacture.
      WARNING – possible mineral multiplication exploit! UPDATE: Exploit has been made void by CCP by adding the new additional minerals as Extra Materials
    • All Exhumers have their 7,5% shield resist bonus reduced to 5% per level of Mining Barge skill
    • All Exhumers (including Skiff) get 50 m3 of Drone Bay and 50 Mbit of Drone Bandwidth
    • Procurer gets a 15k m3 Ore Hold, and 5% per level to shield HP
    • Skiff trades it’s Mercoxit harvesting and +2 Warp Strength boni for a substantial EHP boost
    • Retriever gets a 20k m3 Ore Hold (and 5% more per Mining Barges level) and +1 low slot
    • Mackinaw loses it’s ice harvesting bonus for a 25k m3 Ore Hold (and 5% per Mining Barges level) and +1 low slot
    • Covetor gets 4% mining yield and 3% Ice Harvester duration reduction per Mining Barge skill level
    • Hulk gets 3% mining yield and 5% to shield resist per Mining Barge level, and an additional 3% mining yield and 4% Ice Harvester duration reduction per Exhumer skill level
    • New mining rigs for Ice and Mercoxit harvesting (only one can be fitted at a time)
    • Rookie ships get various bonus to combat and ewar (10% to 30%), but still lower than Tech I frigates – dev post on forums
    • Rookie ships get a EHP boost, more low and med slots
    • Executioner, Atron, Slasher and Condor have been rebalanced – dev post on forums
Tech I Mining Barges - Updated 01.08.2012
Tech I Mining Barges – Updated 01.08.2012
Tech II Exhumers - Updated 01.08.2012
Tech II Exhumers – Updated 01.08.2012

   * * *

Skiff in a maximum yield configuration
Skiff in a maximum yield configuration
Atron, Executioner, Slasher, Condor rebalanced
Atron, Executioner, Slasher, Condor rebalanced

Sourcehttps://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1685237#post1685237 Please mind this is raw static data mined from test EVE Online client. Stats might change before they are deployed on Tranquility. If and when they do, I will update this post.

Update: Technetium balancing 

New Alchemy reactions, that allow bypassing Technetium with other moon minerals.  I’d never knew I’m going to say this, but well… THANKS, MITTENS. And a “Good Job!” badge goes to CCP Fozzie for tackling a problem long overdue.

CCP Fozzie has posted an update to the initial plan (ratio change from 20:1  mentioned in the dev-blog to 10:1) – see this forum post.

More naming changes

This time it will touch (change) the F.O.F. missiles. Some implant descriptions will also be re-formatted to be in line with other implants. For details – see this dev blog

New player experience

The tutorial instructions are now more intuitive, more informative and make EVE easier to grasp for new players. If pretty labels are to make EVE more readable, then so be it.
Complete dev blog about the new player experience is available here.

  • New market search now shows items in groups:

Update: Incursion changes

According to a forum post by CCP Affinity, Override Transfer Array sites will be made a bit easier.

Update: Module changes

Reinforced Steel Plates II armor plates will finally have more HP than Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I (Meta 4) (see screenshot). Unfortunately, Faction versions remain unchanged – their fitting requirements are greater than Meta 4, but the amount of HP is the same.

Update: Fittings now save ammo and fit rigs

According to a dev-blog by CCP Punkturis, saved fittings will finally fit rigs as well as modules (which they saved but did not fit, even if these rigs were available in the hangar). More than that, fitting will now save ammo, so younger pilots will know exactly what to take with them for a roam.

 

Inferno 1.1 available for testing

CCP has deployed Inferno 1.1 on the Singularity public test server yesterday, bringing a whole batch of features that did not make it into the initial release, namely Minmatar V3 skins and a bunch of smaller adjustments to War Declaration mechanics. It seems devs didn’t like that The Star Fraction turned the war initially started by Goonswarm mutual, and then hired a number of allies for free (see this forum post).

  • Team Tri-lambda has made a tiny facelift to the Drake, to make it look better with the new missile launchers.
  • Pilots involved in Faction Warfare will welcome the removal of all E-WAR from FW NPCs. Initially this looks like a considerable boost to Gallente.
  • We will also witness a new skill for Reactive Armor Hardeners: Armor Resistance Phasing, which makes them adjust faster (and as a result – use more capacitor).
  • Incursions will see a removal of two nerfs introduced in Escalation to Inferno, namely:
    • Lowering the reward for vanguard sites by 10%
    • The system influence
  • A lot of unreleased clothing will be made available for AUR – and this time the micropayments will really be micro (prices will range btween 100, 300 and 500 AUR) Complete dev-blog is available here. Eight uniforms, two for each race will be added to FW LP store.

The complete list of changes is available in the Inferno 1.1 feedback post on the forums.

As usual, if you would like to test the new content yourself, feel free to read the Singularity guide at the bottom of this post.

Words are just words, so better have a look at the beautiful minnie ships. They don’t look “streamlined” like the Reaper; instead, they kept their rusty and menacing looks.

Inferno 1.1 will be deployed on 19th of June.

Inferno introduces new mods, and… new seeding method

With Diablo III just around the corner, CCP counter-attacks and fuels their playerbase with new information regarding the new Inferno expansion, which is now just a week away (Inferno will be deployed on 22nd of May).

Team Super Friends has published a dev-blog about the new War mechanics and new modules, which I will cover in more detail below. Since I have recently joined an industrial corp, Aideron Robotics, which is focused on making things (making things go BOOM is in our portfolio as well), I will try to focus on the crafting side of EVE Online in the next couple of posts. I also think that the EVE blogging scene is dominated by PVP related blogs, so it seems to be a good idea to write about something else 😉

Armor Adaptive Hardener I – Low slot. You can use only one such mod at a time, and only Tech I version will become available in Inferno. This hardener will adapt to the incoming damage received in each cycle. Overheating will make the mod adapt faster. this kind of technology reminds me of the Borg 😉 More meta versions will follow if this becomes successful. IMHO a must have mod for armor fleets – just like the Damage Control mod.

Extrinsic Damage Amplifier I & II – Low slot. Works for all drones, but will not work for fighters or fighter bombers. I don’t know why, but the icon suggests drone recycling. Stack penalties apply, so mixing this one with a bunch of Sentry Damage Augmentors rigs is probably not the best idea. Tech 2 version will be inventable from Tech 1 BPCs. Can’t wait to lay my hands on the BPO of this!

Small/Medium/Large/X-Large Ancillary Shield Booster I. Mid slot. A shield booster that gives a better boost than its normal counterpart, and can also use Cap Charges as fuel. When you run out of cap charges, it will automatically switch to eating your capacitor, just like normal shield booster does.

MagSheath Target Breaker I – Mid slot. A must have for fleet engagements. Has a chance to break all incoming target locks based on the overall number of the number of players targeting your ship. The greater this number, the better the chance of activation. The new module has two penalties: considerable sensor resolution debuff and it breaks your own target locks as well upon successful activation. This module cannot be fitted to capital ships.

Small/Medium/Large Overclocking Processor Unit I & II – A rig that increases the CPU, ’nuff said. Hits shield regen rate as a side effect.

Light & Medium Web Drones –  what name says. These drones have huge sginature radius and are paper thin.

Capacitor Battery update – Capacitor Batteries now have an anti-vampire effect that will deflect part of the Energy Neutralizer and Nosferatu effects back to the agressor.

How to get the new shineys?

Only the drone damage mod will be seeded as Tech I BPO. Everything else will spawn as BPCs in exploration sites around the k-space. BPCs will vary from 3 to 50 runs and will also drop from officer and commander spawns. This is to prevent flooding the market by greedy industrial pilots such as myself. This gives exploration a bit more sense.

Developers also consider moving some of the new modules to LP stores, which would bring some fresh perspective into how modules come into the game. I like the idea, but if the diversification becomes too great, CCP might end up having to dumb-down the game again at some point, seeding all the items as blueprints from NPCs.

Wait, where is my Micro Jump Drive?

It is just around the corner. According to the dev-blog, CCP has a working prototype, but they were unable to get it working well enough for a production release. The same applies to Salvage Drones, although the graphics assets for both are ready. This means we will probably see them in the Inferno 1.1 or whatever CCP calls the next update.

Inferno ship models makeover

As I have said earlier in my post about changes coming in the newest EVE Online expansion, Inferno will bring graphical overhaul for many ships, including a full re-model of cloaked bombers.

A player nicknamed ‘sarmatiko’ has released an unofficial preview of the new models. The video is available on youtube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajHzl9OQrk]

I am also not surprised, that CCP will release new V3 skins for Amarr ships, to match the Gallente and Caldari skins released in Crucible. CCP has released an official preview:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rpOfEGFPU8]

I am however a bit concerned, that we will probably still have to wait for the Minmatar ships to receive the V3 love. I just hope that the delay means they will look even more awesome.

Escalation to Inferno is now live on Singularity!

The new login screen is simply gorgeous. Big kudos to the Art Departament @CCP!

Let’s see which items from the list are already available in the current beta:

  • Ship re-balancing and changes to ship skill tree (racial battlecruisers and destroyers)

As you can see, there is no changes here yet.

  • Drone iterations

During the mass test I was unable to visit Drone Regions, but as you can see on the map, true sec has already been adjusted:

  • Incursion iterations

Vanguards ISK payout in high sec has been slightly adjusted (-10%). Additionally, blitzing is no longer possible; all ships need to be destroyed before next wave spawns. The waves themselves have been randomized, so they are not easily predictable anymore.

  

  • Improved HUD

The new HUD now has e-war indicators above the gauge, but is still a little buggy. Once you dock and undock, the new HUD will be… gone. According to CCP this is a known issue and workaround is to open PI screen and then closing it – HUD will be back.

 

The mass test, as usual, included a fair amount of pew-pew: